IDEA, Section 504, and ADA are laws that benefit students with disabilities; however, there is no federal legislation that supports students who are classified as gifted or talented. Other disabilities as opposed to gifted and talented are easily defined. Most states adopt (with modification) the federal definition. The definition most commonly used or modified is: The term “gifted and talented children” means children and, whenever applicable, youth, who are identified at the preschool, elementary , or secondary level as possessing demonstrated or potential abilities that give evidence of high performance capability in areas such as intellectual, creative, specific academic, or leadership ability, or in the performing and visual arts, and who by reason thereof, require services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school. (Gifted and Talented Children’s Education Act, 1978)
Few areas in the education of children with exceptionalities are as controversial and critical as appropriate identification of children who are gifted. The controversies involve all the pros and con...
Plucker, J. A., & Barab, S. A. (2005). The importance of contexts in theories of giftedness. In R. J. Sternberg & J. E. Davidson (Eds.), Conceptions of giftedness (pp. 201-216). New York: Cambridge University Press.
A common misconception is intelligence is inherited and does not change, so therefore, gifted children do not need special services. However, this mindset is very dangerous when it comes to the development of gifted children. It is widely believed that gifted students will get by on their own without any assistance from their school. After all,
Stephanie Lindsey the author of the article Autism and Education addresses some serious issues in the education system between the special needs students and the highly gifted students. Stephanie writes the article based off her children and how they are treated in school. Her son has autism, which affects his capability to learn, speak, and to train himself when it comes to bathroom use. Also never being alone in school due to him having a personal aid alongside him with special classes he is treaded with a different type of education. Her daughter on the other hand tests in the 95th percentile nationwide on standardized testing. She’s twelve and her capability of progressing information and taking complex ideas apart and putting them back together to form new thoughts is like no normal twelve year old. She reads entire novels, solves Sudoku puzzles, and also participates in her school
The problem associated with how students are chosen to join a gifted and talented program stems from the way that we define giftedness. Because there are countless ways in which any individual can define talent, the government created a federal task force in 1972 to study gifted education in order to standardize the way in which schools choose students for and implement their gifted and talented programs. The task force’s results are known as the Marland Report and include much information as a result of their research, including a decision that a public school’s gifted and talented programs should aim to serve between 3 and 5 percent o...
The Talents Unlimited Model was created under the philosophy that all students, both those identified as gifted and those not, would benefit from enrichment programs. The model is used to educate teachers on how to use differentiated instruction to use “higher order cognitive tasks to help students with varying abilities use their preferred thinking talents to manipulate instruction to solve problems, see broad relationships, evaluate varying perspectives, draw comparisons among disparate viewpoints, and predict causes and effects” (Schlichter, 2009, p. 434).
Similar to IDEA, is Section 504 of the Act. Students are eligible for Section 504 if they have a "physical or mental impairment which substantially limits a major life activity." Section 504 also requires schools to meet certain evaluation criteria in order to assess how a student's disability affects the child's educational performance.
Donovan, M. Suzanne and Christopher T. Cross (2002, August). Minority Students in Special and Gifted Education. Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com.ezproxy2.library.drexel.edu/lib/drexel/-docDetail.action?docID=10032383.
Whitney, C. S. & Hirsch, G. (2011). Helping Gifted Children Soar. A Practical Guide for
What makes a person gifted has been debated historically and continues on today. The debate has been influenced by politics and culture, which impact how gifted children are educated. The three articles discussed in this paper explore the origins, development, social-emotional impact, and politics of giftedness.
Plucker, J. A., & Barab, S. A. (2005). The importance of contexts in theories of giftedness. In R. J. Sternberg & J. E. Davidson (Eds.), Conceptions of giftedness (pp. 201-216). New York: Cambridge University Press.
With this in mind, it is important to comprehend the role of an individual's environment while determining the source of intelligence. Gifted programs have incredible inequality, with 8% of white children being considered gifted, on the other hand only 3.6% of black and 4.2% of hispanic students are deemed gifted according to the Department of Education’s report (Guo, 2015). Poorer children are also presented with fewer advantages than their wealthier counterparts, critics will say that gifted programs put more effort into enrolling wealthier children (Guo, 2015). Interestingly, at the age of two, poorer children are likely six months behind on their language development skills (Guo, 2015). Not to mention that children brought up in safe, inspiring environments have a higher average IQ score than neglected children (Le Page, 2017). One stellar example of the role of environment while determining intelligence is the case of Edith Stern. Edith was raised from birth to be intelligent, only listening to classical music as a babe and being spoken to as if she were an adult while still an infant (Cohen, 1977). This process was dubbed by her father “total educational immersion”, as he believed in something akin to a growth mindset (Cohen, 1977). Edith now has an IQ of 200, taught math at a college level by age 15 and holds a PhD, proving that intelligence can be learned (Cohen,
In conclusion Good Will Hunting is a good example of some of the challenges that gifted and talented people face. First, they can be bored if not properly identified, and served. Secondly, they still need the same attention that adults give to students without exceptionalities. Finally, students with exceptionalities face the same social-emotional problems
Gifted Child Today, 2004: 2000-. Willis Web. City U of New York Lib. 1 Dec
One of the most controversial things about gifted and talented education is the criterion educators use to identify the gifted and talented. In the past, a student’s intelligence, based on an I.Q. score, was considered the best way to determine whether or not they qualified as gifted. As a result of using this method of identification, many gifted and talented students are not discovered nor are they placed in the appropriate programs to develop their abilities. Talents in the arts or an excellent ability to write are not measured on an I.Q. test but are abilities that may certainly qualify a student as gifted or talented.
Parke, B. (n.d.). Challenging gifted students in the regular classroom. Retrieved March 1, 2004, from http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content/Challenging_gifted _kids.html